As the world falls down

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"Oh come on... You really expect me to believe that?" The young woman shook her head and continued to clean the glass she was holding. "So let me get this right, the guy smashed a fist clean through your window, while you were driving, and tried to take a chunk clean out of you?" She clarified, a dark eyebrow raised in amusement. "Seriously, Jackson, if that were even a little true, why are you here in my bar and not squealing to the cops like a good little citizen?"
"Cleo! Come on!" The man who had been addressed at Jackson wailed. "I'm in shock here! Some guy tries to chow down on me, and you're not even a little worried for my well being? That's cold... Even for you!"
Cleo smiled and gently set the glass down before leaning her elbows on the bar to come face to face with Jackson, the waves of her dyed silver hair slipping over her shoulders. The bar owner always wore matt red lipstick and lots of black eyeliner around her pale blue eyes. The hint of her natural hair colour was the slice of ebony in the side of her blunt cut bangs that stopped just above her eyebrows.
The young woman often did this, stared people down until they simply cracked and told her what she wanted to know. But Jackson wasn't changing his story, which bothered her more than it should.

Ben jumped a little too, and already had one of the home made explosives in his hand. He was wise enough to know he couldn't just throw it at the drop of a hat, but if that window gave, it wouldn't make much difference. "The office is pretty quiet, maybe you should check on Cleo?" He suggested, again simply wanting Shelly out of harms way.

Cleo heard the ground and smiled to herself. "Oops... clumsy me." She remarked, now crouched by the safe.

Shelly pushed her long hair over her shoulder and tipped back the shot she'd poured for Ben. "Trying hard to get rid of me, aren't you, cowboy?" She asked him, her eyes on the boy who was again slamming his body against the glass. 

"Hurry up. You're lucky I dont kill the lot of you for calling that damn sheriff. You should be happy I'm only planning to kill him." Jacob ground out, leaning heavily on the doorframe.

"You finally noticed?" Ben snorted, though he was still watching the window. "This town has gone to shit, Shelly. If it gets worse and I die here, I don't want it to be next to my biggest mistake."

Cleo had opened the safe and was smiling. Inside was an ornate silver handgun, one she cherished enough to keep locked away. "I killed a man tonight, and it wasn't my first. How bout you?" She asked calmly, on her feet and once again pointing a gun at Jacob.

Shelly left him standing there and walked to Cleo's office. It was enough of a distraction to have Jacob on her in a moment, throwing her hard against the wall. "How about I kill your friend?" He hissed, his elbow on her throat. He glanced back at Cleo, daring her to defy him.

"Just how much do you think this bar makes?" Cleo sneered, not lowering her gun. It was a waste of a bullet in her eyes, but Cleo fired a shot, the metal embedding in the wall beside Jacob and Shelly, not before it had scratched his cheek on its way.

Jacob turned on Cleo, swinging the gun wide and elbowing Shelly hard in the stomach. "Enough to get me where the hell I need to go!" He roared, grabbing the taller blonde's hair and hitting her head on the wall.

Cleo took a gamble and surger forward, jabbing fingers against where she could see tghe blood on Jacob's shirt. She didn't know for certain if that was where he was injured, or it was someonee lses blood.

It was enough to get the big man down. He let go of shelly in a instant and dropped to the floor. Almost comically, Cleo would find herself with a bullet in her hand and a now unconcious would be robber.  
"What the hell?" Shelly asked, trying to clear her vision. "Was he serious?

Cleo looked down at the bullet in her fingers, then at the unconscious man on her floor. "I... guess so..." She murmured, realising she was probably in a lot more danger than she had thought. "Shelly, find something to tie him up until we can figure out what's going on around here."

"Ben!" Shelly barked, yanking open the bottom drawer of Cleo's desk. She found the rope where she thought it was and tossed it to the other woman. 

But Ben would be dealing with an entirely different issue. Theven new girl friend he'd left in Raymondville was braver than it seemed. Harley Western wasn't about to just be left and not know why. She'd followed Ben here, the headlights of her car sweeping over the growing crowd outside.

Cleo was keeping close watch on the intruder, wondering what he had been doing to be shot in the first place. "What's Ben doing?" She asked, simply to fill the silence.

The light filtered through the bodies, streaking across the floor of the bar which caused Ben to frown. He was moving cautiously closer to the window, wondering who would be stupid enough to get this close without realising something very bad was going on out there.

"He's doing the cop thing. You know, playing the hero." Shelly shrugged. "Ben! Come on, damn it!" 
Jacob was already stirring. The statement was true, you can't keep a big man down. 

Harley jumped when several people began crowding her car. One man even jumped on her windshield and slammed his fists on the glass. Her baby blue eyes were wide with fear.

Cleo hissed for Shelly to hurry up with the rope and sat herself on Jacob's injured abdomen to keep him from doing much at all.

Ben wouldn't be coming when Shelly called, he was climbing over the chairs to get out the broken door. He had seen the colour of that car, and it looked all too familiar. He was already blaming himself for dragging her into this, whatever this was.

Jacobs eyes snapped open and he howled loudly. "Get off me, cow!" He was surprised to find that she was positioned in just a way that he couldn't move. 

Haley screamed as glass shattered around her and the man dove on top of her. She was smart enough to grab for the knife in her purse, but not strong enough to do more than slash at him.

"Or what? Going to threaten me some more, big tough guy?" Cleo snorted, jabbing a finger into the bullet wound he had.

Ben tossed one of the molotovs into the crowd before darting in and out of them. He could hear all of them moaning like they were possessed, but the sound of a woman's screams were piercing through that. He knew that voice and was soon dragging a man out of the car by his leg.

This time Jacob bared his teeth and raised his hips. "You don't scare me, girl. You're not as big as you think you are. You never were." 

Haley dragged in a breathed when they pressure was off her and went for her purse, only to be grabbed by a akinny, mean looking woman. Strangely, she seemed to be slobbering.

"Oh? Know me pretty well then, do ya'?" Cleo drawled before laughing as she met Shelly's gaze again. Shelly may have had the string of past lovers, but not Cleo. Cleo was a rather prickly flower that few were really tough enough to get close to.

Ben could feel their fingers grabbing at him, but thankfully so far he had shrugged them off. Haley would soon find herself lifted into arms that had held her a thousand times already.

"This isn't the first time I've been here, honey. I can't help none of you show offs noticed me." Jacob said, finally realizing he wasn't going to get anywhere with her. "If you won't give me money, let me go. But you have to understand, I have to kill your sheriff." 
Shelly just snorted, watching Ben carrying a woman like a precious package in his arms. 

Haley clung to Ben as he ran back into the bar. People were clawing at his pants and shirt. More than once she made a pitiful swipe at their fingers with her knife. As soon as he set her down inside, she did her best to help fix the barrier back. "Thank you." She said, offering him a warm smile.

"Yeah, and that's gonna happen." Cleo snorted, refusing to budge. "Touch him, and you'll be breathing out of an entirely new hole." She added, worried when Shelly seemed to be staring at something Cleo herself couldn't see. 

"Haley..." Ben was running his fingers through his hair and shaking his head. "What made you drive all the way out here?" He had asked the question, even though he already knew the answer.

"She got a thing going with him?" Jacob asked, his large fingers resting on Cleo's legs. "She's looking a bit like a green eyed monster right now..." he added, able to hear another woman speaking. 

"You just left me and didn't say anything more than her name. Even if you're leaving me...I plan to talk you out of hurting yourself again." Haley was the kind of woman you took home to your mother. She was perfect and sweet. She looked the way artists though angels should look. She was a kindergarten teacher.
Not to mention she truly loved and adored Ben in a way that Shelly never had.

"Had." Cleo replied, slapping at Jacob's fingers. "Had a thing, and it didn't work out." She added, though her voice did grow a little softer. The silver haired woman had never approved of what her friend had done to Ben.

"Honey..." Ben's voice was filled with sadness as he breathed that single word. "Leaving you was the furthest thing from my mind. I... I just didn't think you would understand me running off in the middle of the night to help a woman who called me up." He confessed. "I didn't think it was fair of me to ask you to understand anyway, even though I'm only here as sheriff, nothing else."

"So it would kind of bother him if I killed her instead. Is that what you're saying?" Jacob asked, there was almost a purr to his voice. "I've killed a woman before."

"This isn't your town. I'm not stupid, Ben." Haley said sadly. "Not to mention thisomething is her town."

Cleo actually laughed and again jabbed a slender finger into the bullet wound in Jacob's abdomen. "After what happened? Hardly." She snorted.

"I know it's not my town, but I thought I could still help." Ben breathed. "They have a lot of trouble here, and this town's police aren't exactly shining examples of the law."

Jacob made a grab for Cleo, snarling in pain. "Then we are back to where we started. I'm killing him."
"Heads up!" Shelly shouted. It was all the warning she could give before a young scrawny man came tearing into the office. He bared bloody, gnashing them the couple. He screamed at them. 
Shelly knew who he was. The young man named Wayne had come to Cleo's bar desperate to earn money to buy himself a new bike. He was one of the hardest workers she'd ever met. But now...he looked no different than Elvis Ray. 

Haley didn't look like she believed him but she nodded her head. "You weren't coming back." She said softly. "You just got your things and..." she wrapped her arms around herself and created distance between them.

Cleo had no choice to get off of Jacob as the gnashing teeth barely missing her calf. The small woman slid across the office floor, hesitating to shoot the young man when she realised who ti was. "Shelly! Get your ass out of here and shit the door! Stay with Ben, I'll handle this!"

"I didn't think you would want me back." Ben confessed, reaching his fingers out to brush Haley's cheek gently.

Her hesitation would cost her. Wayne dove for Shelly leaping on her and sinking his teeth deep into her right shoulder. He came away with a mouthful of flesh. 
Shelly's screams could be heard outside. It was drawing more people and they were banging harder on the windows. 

Shelly's scream kept Haley from answering him. She once again stepped back, this time staring at the floor. "Go ahead. She needs you." She added, her purse held tight to her chest.

Ben was the one to hesitate this time. "Just... get behind the bar, and don't move." He told Haley firmly. "It isn't safe here, I need to get you somewhere that is."

There would be the sound of several shots fired, though Ben would find Cleo slumped on the office floor, cradling Shelly in her arms as she pressed a hand firmly to the gaping wound. "Don't leave me... You promised." She whispered, terrified by the amount of blood her friend was losing.

Shelly was trying hard to obey her friend. But for some reason the edges of her vision were blurring.
Jacob walked past them, his hand again on his midsection. "She's dead. She just has to figure it out and so do you." He turned his eyes on the sheriff. "This narrows the field down, huh, lover boy?"

"Shut up!" Cleo shouted rather childishly. "You're no better! I hope one of those things out there rips your throat out before you have the pleasure of bleeding to death from that bullet!"

Ben was watching Jacob with narrowed eyes, not sure why this stranger seemed to have such a dislike of him.

"Here..." Haley knelt on the other side of Shelly and opened a first aid kit. She tore at the bottom section of her sun dress and used it press to the wound. "What in the world is going on?" She asked, looking from one person to another. She stood out in the rag tag group and it made her an instant target.  "Has anyone called an ambulance? What are all those people outside?" She went on, her eyes now resting on Cleo. 

Jacob already had his eyes on the gun that sat beside Cleo. His thoughts were rolling over and over on how to get out of this bar and back on the road. He'd need that first aid kit at the very least.